A different type of material for receivers

[lysander]

I still remember the chemistry lesson at middle school. The teacher put a strip of magnesium to a Bunsen burner with a pair of forceps. It started burning brightly almost instantly. It is result of violent oxidation due to magnesium's chemical activeness, the teacher explained.

I used to work for Nokia Mobile Phones. A few of the early phone models used magnesium alloy as shielding cover over the radio circuits. It was surprisingly light. But quickly it was replaced by metalized plastics. Talking to the mechanical engineer, fire hazard was one of the reasons, especially so when we started using lithium ion batteries. Before that the batteries were nickel cadmium and then nickel metal hydride.

-TL

Sent from my SM-N960U using Tapatalk

Magnesium - Myths-vs-Facts

"Few of us will ever forget the time-honored magnesium strip experiment. It has left many with the idea that magnesium of any kind ignites readily and burns quickly. The truth behind this impression is a bit more complicated. It points out facts we never learned in high school . . .

Myth: All magnesium ignites easily and, once ignited, is difficult to extinguish.

Fact: It is true that magnesium (Mg) can be ignited. Once ignited, the fire can be sustained in air under the right conditions. This is about the only principle ever demonstrated by the chemistry professor. (Erickson's high school teacher even put the strip into a bottle of oxygen to enhance burning.)

When a strip of Mg is very thin, you can supply enough heat to ignite it with the flame from a Bunsen burner. Even then, to get it to burn, you have to tip the strip downward to heat the area above it. That puts more of the heat of the flame into the metal.

When a bigger piece of Mg. . . is put in a high-temperature environment (an oven or a burning car), it's possible to get it up to a temperature where it will ignite and burn. Even then, it is usually the last thing to burn. Investigators have looked at old VW Beetles, which had about 60 lb of Mg in them. In a car fire, the entire car is consumed before the Mg will ignite."

As I stated above, B-52 brake calipers (all eight of them) are made from magnesium, in the last 72 years, how many B-52s have made overweight landings resulting in hot brakes? (Rotors can reach temperatures well over 1500° F.) We have lost as many B-52s to brake fires, as we have to F-100 Super Sabers shooting them with an air-to-air missile., And, in that one brake fire incident, it was due to a hydraulic line breaking and the hydraulic fluid catching on fire, not any of the magnesium components.

[Diamondback]

Resident Evil.

-TL

Sent from my SM-N960U using Tapatalk

Very real.
https://www.ucwrg.com/

[kirkland]

This has turned into a fun thread and I thank everyone who played along and also those who wrote serious replies. All the info that has been posted here about magnesium is interesting. If I'm not mistaken I believe some of the earlier BCM Keymod rails had some magnesium in them, I still have one, they were probably one of the lightest rails ever made.

[Echo40]

Very real.
https://www.ucwrg.com/

That's pretty cool. Apparently they've been around since 2007, yet I've never heard of them until now. I gotta hand it to them, it was pretty smart of them to Trademark the name of a fictional corporation from a videogame which was into weapons development behind-the-scenes, then start making real-life weapons with the name/logo on them.

On a side note, it's somewhat unfortunate that ARs were only in a few of the games and were typically underpowered.

[tangolima]

That's pretty cool. Apparently they've been around since 2007, yet I've never heard of them until now. I gotta hand it to them, it was pretty smart of them to Trademark the name of a fictional corporation from a videogame which was into weapons development behind-the-scenes, then start making real-life weapons with the name/logo on them.

On a side note, it's somewhat unfortunate that ARs were only in a few of the games and were typically underpowered.

I was single back then. I remember taking one week of vacation to "blow the hatch" on resident Evil 2 on PS2. Rented the game from blockbuster. The whole week was doing nothing but trying to clear all levels of that game. Good stuff. There have been a few movies made based on the story line since.

Claire Redhill, Raccoon city ....

-TL

Sent from my SM-N960U using Tapatalk

[JediGuy]

If I'm not mistaken I believe some of the earlier BCM Keymod rails had some magnesium in them, I still have one, they were probably one of the lightest rails ever made.

The “KMR” is a magnesium alloy. The metal is “softer” (someone feel free to correct my non-technical word) and marred fairly easily despite being more $. The KMR-A has been produced for like 8 years now as a replacement without magnesium.

V7 and their sister/subsidiary Dark Hour Defense make a magnesium alloy handguard with a 7068 barrel nut.

https://darkhourdefense.com/shop/MAG...AR15-HANDGUARD

[Diamondback]

That's pretty cool. Apparently they've been around since 2007, yet I've never heard of them until now. I gotta hand it to them, it was pretty smart of them to Trademark the name of a fictional corporation from a videogame which was into weapons development behind-the-scenes, then start making real-life weapons with the name/logo on them.

On a side note, it's somewhat unfortunate that ARs were only in a few of the games and were typically underpowered.

Rub is, their stuff is very limited availability--my GF's a fan of the movies, so we had to get one of the lowers for her iron.

[Echo40]

I was single back then. I remember taking one week of vacation to "blow the hatch" on resident Evil 2 on PS2. Rented the game from blockbuster. The whole week was doing nothing but trying to clear all levels of that game. Good stuff. There have been a few movies made based on the story line since.

Claire Redhill, Raccoon city ....

-TL

Sent from my SM-N960U using Tapatalk

I was waaayyy late to the party on RE2, couldn't play it until 2005 because my parents wouldn't let me play M Rated games — they had no problems with R Rated Movies or TV-MA Rated TV Shows, but M Rated videogames were forbidden — so I didn't play any M Rated games (at home) until I was 20.

RE2 actually got a remake back in 2019 that's pretty excellent. My only complaint is that they removed the sequential A & B Scenarios.

By the way, it's Redfield.

[lysander]

The “KMR” is a magnesium alloy. The metal is “softer” (someone feel free to correct my non-technical word) and marred fairly easily despite being more $. The KMR-A has been produced for like 8 years now as a replacement without magnesium.

V7 and their sister/subsidiary Dark Hour Defense make a magnesium alloy handguard with a 7068 barrel nut.

https://darkhourdefense.com/shop/MAG...AR15-HANDGUARD

Your better grades of magnesium have hardness in the BH 75 - 80 range (Brinell).

6061-T6 or T651 runs around BH 95, 7075-T6 BH 140 -150.

Like aluminum, you can hard anodize it to get the surface up to BN 500 -600 range, but the core is definitely softer.